In Praise of War

War is necessary – it ensures the health of a people, and it encourages those warrior virtues which are essential to civilization. When a people, nation or race goes for decades without engaging in a war which involves all or most of the communities of that people, nation or race, then that people, nation or race tends toward decadence – with cowardly scum coming to the surface, the young becoming feckless and undisciplined, and society generally declining. War breeds and reveals character – in combat, there is no where to hide. One either does one’s duty, with courage and perhaps heroism – ot one does not. War is the test of the man. War is natural selection in action – Fate decrees who survives, who is uninjured and who becomes revered as heroic. War makes individuals respect Fate, and thus gives real wisdom – an awareness ofduty and responsibility.

Pacifism, and the pursuit of peace as an objective, are decadent – manifestations of cowards and decadents, and of a people and society ruled by cowards and decadents. Of course war creates and brings suffering, injury and hardship – but the hard reality is that such things are necessary. Without such things there is no real wisdom, no real individual character, no real understanding – no awareness of Fate, of those forces which are beyond the individual and which the individual cannot control. Without such things there is no perspective – and what is really important about life and living gets lost in selfishness and a crass pursuit of materialism. Above all else, war breeds nobility. It makes the values of nobility – honour, loyalty and duty – ideals to be strived for and thus encourages civilized conduct among individuals and a civilized society for individuals to live in. A noble individual is someone prepared to fight, and if necessary die, for their folk, race or nation. A peaceful society – dedicated to peace and the selfishness and materialism which goes with it – encourages and creates a feckless, crime-ridden society full of aggressive individuals who use that aggression to achieve their petty, egotistical aims.

War channels the natural and healthy aggression of youth and early manhood in a useful and productive way. The proponents of pacifism and the ‘peaceful society’ believe in their vain arrogance that their abstract, unnatural and intellectual ideas can change what they see as “human nature” – they believe that given sufficient “education” (read ‘brainwashing’) and sufficient social schemes, this aggression and lust for battle can be removed or miraculously transformed into something which they believe is more positive. What these products of late-twentieth century decadence fail in their intellectual arrogance to understand, is that individual nature is only and always changed by real, practical experience of living and never by ideas or any amount of ‘teaching’ and/or social schemes. What little individual change results from such things as ideas, teaching, ‘faith’ and social schemes is only and always pretence – affectation; that is, whatever change such things produce in individuals, such changes are not real – they do not go deep, they are not fundamental, positive changes.

What all this amounts to is that if one places side-by-side a combat veteran, and one of the intellectual pacifist/’social worker’ types which modern society breeds in profusion, then it is obvious to anyone of any real intelligence that the combat veteran is the better person, more in touch with the reality of life, more civilized and more able to cope with life and any change life brings. It is only soft, comfortable modern urban/suburban living which allows the social worker type to flourish – and this soft urban/suburban style of living exists in any civilization only for a short period, for it has within it the seeds of its own destruction. These seeds are the soft individuals it breeds. Civilizations are created and maintained by individuals of character – by warriors, by those experienced in war – they are never created and never maintained by ideas, by bureaucratic types, by politicians, by social schemes and ‘education’. Anyone who believes that civilization depends on clever, fancy ideas and those who propound such ideas or makes their living from them is, quite simply, being naive. The penalty for such large scale naivety as the societies of the West now suffer from, is that slowly descent back into barbarism which has already begun.

The reality of pacifism and other such unnatural abstract ideas, is that they undermine and ultimately destroy that personal or individual character which is essential to civilization. The personal character essential to civilization and a civilized way of life is only and always created by combat – by personal experience of war. A healthy society accepts war and prepares for it. A healthy society encourages warrior virtues and trains its people for combat. A healthy society upholds the war or combat hero as the highest ideal – as someone to be admired and emulated. A healthy society rewards those who have distinguished themselves in battle and accepts such individuals, and only such individuals, as leaders. In a healthy society, young men look forward eagerly to battle.

In contrast, an unhealthy or sick society strives to make “heroes” out of such non-entities as “entertainers”, politicians and successful business people. In brief, a sick society elevates the type of people combat veterans despise – vain, egotistical people concerned for the most part with materialism and/or sickly, pretentious (often sociological) ‘ideas’.

In needs to be constantly affirmed that war and civilization are inseparable. To be civilizing, war has to be for some noble purpose – and this purpose can only be to ensure the survival, prosperity and extension of a particular folk, nation or race. War for a decadent purpose – such as to ensure ‘peace’ – is self-defeating, and produces only degeneracy and decline because such a decadent purpose weakens those fighting and produces an ailing, weak society dedicated to unnatural ideas that make people psychically unwell. Thus, any war which aims to strengthen a particular folk, nation or race is good; any war fought for any other reason – such as an abstract idea like ‘peace’ – is bad. A good war creates, aids and maintains civilization. A bad war destroys civilization.

A good war is morally right – it is a duty. It is a necessity. A good war ensures the health and vitality of a particular folk, nation or race – and thus makes for a healthy, vital society. What we have today – in terms of civilized life and the comforts which go with it – is the result of war. What we have lost and are losing – honour, community spirit, noble character, vitality, purpose – is the result of peace. For too long the pacifists, the cowards, the decadent and the pursuers of selfish, material goals, have been unchallenged. We who believe in war – who know its value and its purpose – have been silent for too long. We need to once again proudly and defiantly sing the praises of war!